6 de dezembro de 2010

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Taiwan is hoping to welcome 6 million visitors next year. A series of projects has been planned to help achieve the feat.

Taiwan has been thought of for far too long as merely a label on a huge array of goods. “Made in Taiwan” has often referred to a jungle of factories with nothing to offer for tourists. Thankfully for the Taiwanese, the attitude is changing and people are taking the Eastern Chinese island a lot more seriously.

In fact, the name Taiwan often refers to China itself, i.e. the mainland, meaning that plastic goods in the west are not necessarily from the island. A flourishing economy in recent years has led to a boom in tourism, both from Mainland China and foreign countries.

The year 2010 has been a landmark year for Taiwan as almost 5 million visitors have come to the island for the purpose of tourism. The tourist board is planning an international news conference to celebrate the arrival of the 5 millionth visitor to make sure that the success of Taiwanese tourism is known on a global scale. The success has been greatly aided by 1.2 million visitors that have come from Mainland China so far this year.

To help achieve the extra 1 million or so in 2011, a host of events has been arranged. The Taipei skyscraper, a symbol of the growth of the Taiwanese economy is to host an extravagant and spectacular New Year’s Eve party. An international cycle race is set for the spring along with an international food party to celebrate the gastronomic delights of the region. A lantern festival is included as the remainder of events specially designed to give Taiwanese tourism as much publicity as possible.